News

Actors Song Joong-ki (left) and Song Hye-kyo, stars of the soap opera ‘Descendants of the Sun,’ announce on July 5 that they will tie the knot on Oct. 31 this year. (Song Hye-kyo’s Instagram feed)

By Kang Ga Hui, Kim Eun-young and Kim Young Shin

All of Asia was shocked by the surprise marriage announcement from actors Song Joong-ki and Song Hye-kyo, who together played the lead couple in the famous TV soap opera "Descendants of the Sun.”

Each star’s management company announced on July 5 that the couple will hold their wedding ceremony on Oct. 31, 2017. Articles about their marriage immediately flooded the web across Asia, especially in China, Japan and Singapore.

The news also went viral across social media.

In China, major outlets like the People’s Daily Online, Sina Weibo and Phoenix Television all heralded the marriage as breaking news.

The news quickly spread across social media, as many eyes are focused on the couple. On Weibo, a major Chinese social media platform, more than 400 million posts had hashtags about the couple’s union, topping the list of daily popular issues. The official announcement of the actors’ marriage on their official Weibo accounts received more than 90,000 likes and 8,000 replies as of July 10.

In Japan, major news outlets like Kyodo News and Sankei Shimbun promptly reported the engagement. Also, the magazine Jyoseijisin (女性自身) wrote about Song Joong-ki and Song Hye-kyo’s wedding and the reaction from their Korean fans.

Other Asian media outlets, like the Singaporean daily Straits Times, the Philippines’ biggest broadcaster ABS-CBN and the Australian TV channel SBS, also reported the news about the couple tying the knot.